Gothomance
by Tofurkey
Summary: She was suspicious of him. He gave her great reason to be. Yet, unexpectedly, love can bloom in the darkness, like a flower in the moonlight. [ShigureSaki]
1. Catch Me If You Can

**Title: **Gothomance

**Author: **Tofurkey

**Disclaimer: **I wish for a lot of things: infinite mounds of money, a gorgeous boyfriend also in possession of infinite mounds of money, world domination, world peace under my world domination, my own private jet, and chocolate. But when I wished that I owned and was legally entitled to Fruits Basket, it was the last straw for the Wish Fairy. She poked me in the eye with her wand, and I won't lie. It hurt.

**Summary: **Unexpectedly, the most beautiful love blooms in the darkness, like a flower in the moonlight. Saki Hanajima/Shigure Sohma.

"_It was then, staring into the shadows, that my dreams first became exquisite." _Lemuel W. H. Ranier, _Flawed, Flawed, Silent_

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* * *

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**Chapter I: Catch Me If You Can**

Shigure Sohma hardly ever remembered his dreams upon waking; only a certain emptiness, a certain longing, that he had strived his whole life to banish. He had schemed, seduced, and skirted around for fulfillment ever since he could remember, but had never even glimpsed it. As a cursed member of the animal zodiac, reaching an ideal, satisfied state in life was as ridiculous as the notion of trying to grasp the moon from the roof of the house.

Yet…

Standing in the middle of the jungle that was his bedroom, Shigure dressed in silence, not needing much time to slip into the familiar baggy black yukata, the worn sandals. A dull moonlight pushed defiantly against the closed sliding doors, throwing the room into distorted shading, and before he could cross the room to close the window as well, a warm summer breeze blew in, lightly teasing the stray papers strewn about in odd places. Shigure shivered.

Yet…yet a lifetime so far of disappointment and he hadn't given up. Never. Disgustingly, he was reminded of those inane party questions, meant to stir trivial discussion. If so-and-so were to jump off a bridge, would you? To save them? To join them?

A smile played coyly on Shigure's lips despite himself, as he cleared a small path towards the doors lazily with his foot through the junk piling on the floor. When he had learned to disregard himself this way, to feed this inner hunger, fuel such an unhealthy ambition, was irrelevant. He would jump off the bridge only to save himself, plunge into the dark abyss only if when he resurfaced, gasping for breath, he had what he wanted: his life. Nothing and no one else mattered.

Throwing the sliding doors open, Shigure was assaulted by the scarce sounds of the dead night, a resigned quiet, and the illuminating light that shone down on him from the fat, full moon, hanging low in the sky, throwing beams of its tempting light into the shadowed porch where he stood.

Shigure stepped forward onto the grass, outstretched his hand and squinted; a distorted visage of the moon wavered brightly between his fingers, and if he squinted harder and twisted his wrist, appeared to be in the palm of his hand. Slowly collapsing his fingers around it, encasing it, enclosing it, he smirked to himself.

And yet, it wasn't really a long reach after all.

* * *

Shigure strolled in a content solitude down one of the many paths that wound through the woods on the extensive Sohma property, engulfing the house he shared with Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru.

His sleeping schedule being erratic as it was, rising at a little past midnight craving 'breakfast' was only a normality scraped daily.

Even though fairly private, the Sohma woods were close to a dense residential area, and the only sounds that seem to ring through the night were the deadened sounds of cars zooming incessantly on the streets beyond. Shigure breathed in the warm, sweet summer air deeply, the rhythmic scrapings of his sandals in the dirt lulling him into a state of waking-sleep.

Finally stopping when he reached the chain-linked fence that separated another little Sohma property from the rest of world, cut off no matter where the location, Shigure leaned his head against the cool, jagged metal, and felt as if observing from another world, patterns poking and molding into his skin. Lately these little strolls of his had ended with him here, at the gateway, just to stare out onto the cleanly molded, deserted street with its nearly identical house complexes, its average people.

But something was different about tonight, the quiet was…unsettling.

"It's too quiet…" Shigure mumbled under his breath to no one in particular, his fingers entwining themselves comfortably in the intricate pattern of the fence, holding the brunt of his weight, as he leaned limply against the feeble metal contraption. "It's---"

"---unnerving," a dark voice cut through the dense air from the other side of the fence, causing Shigure to stumble over backward in a mixture of shock and fright.

"Saki!" He exclaimed from his sprawled position in the dirt, startled and bemused. He should start failing to be surprised at these random appearances of her's. He stood up and wiped the dirt from his hands onto his yukata, and looked through the holes in the barrier to make sure he wasn't hallucinating from a lack of 'breakfast'.

No, not even in the dim light could he mistake her for anyone or anything else: the gothic-style outfit; the long, flowing black hair; topped-off with a stoic expression, he could all-over conclude with utmost certainty that she was none other than Saki Hanajima, Tohru Honda's mysterious, and slightly creepy friend.

Regaining some composure, Shigure kept his distance from the fence now, yet smoothly looked her over. "Now, Saki, I have to wonder: what brings you out so late at night?" 'And here, no less,' he finished silently in his head.

"I could ask the same," Saki replied in her monotonous voice, gazing steadily up at him. A stray, tumbling summer breeze gushed to fill the silence between the two, sifting through the dry leaves above and creating a quivering, impatient sort of rustle.

Shigure took a step closer. "And your parents? I'd imagine they'd be worried, you wandering out alone in the dead of the night."

"No," was the single, simple reply. The wind teased through her long hair, giving it the eerie look of floating, alive ribbons framing her pale face.

Stepping closer still, so that the only thing between them was the jagged, metal fence, Shigure looked down at her with a slightly puzzled expression. She was hard to read, and it was frustrating for him. People, by law, were supposed to be easy; like books walking around without the protection of covers. How such an enigmatic girl became friends with a spit-fire yankee that spoke her mind and a people-pleasing simpleton, he could only begin to guess.

"_Why_ are you _here_, Saki?" He repeated softly, observing her with a bare curiosity that he didn't bother to mask with his usual, cheerfully ignorant façade. In the moonlight split into scattered shards by the trees above, her pale skin had unusual glower to it, her eyelashes casting dark butterfly-shadows across her face…

In the silence in which she appeared to be compiling some sort of reply, Shigure was belatedly struck with a sense of déjà vu: Him, Hanajima – engulfed by darkness. A year ago, on the way to the Sohma Estate for New Year's, she had approached Yuki, Kyo, and himself on a dim street, shocking them all of their wits. Her unexpected visit had been on the behalf of Tohru, and it was bare naked truth to any fool that she and Uotani had a steel-clad devotion to the girl. Could Tohru's welfare be the reason of her latest appearance?

"Why do dogs howl at the moon?"

_Not really a long reach, after all.._

Shigure felt his body go rigid. This girl…waves…his…

_Grasp the moon…_

After a few delayed seconds of his mind tripping over itself, Shigure regained his senses. Above the ghostly tumbling of the wind through the trees, he could hear a faint, mournful howl a distance's off: a wolf. His own kind; that is, by curse, by spirit, by force.

He nearly burst out laughing at his moment of disarming stupidity. Of course Saki couldn't be referring to the zodiac curse, about him, no matter what mysterious waves she read. It was a ludicrous notion, really, although he couldn't repress a coy, ironic smile.

Slowly, Shigure relaxed his posture and slid down, down, down, along the fence, until his glinting, gold-brown eyes were level with her deep, dark ones; until, if it weren't for the chain-link fence between them, their noses would be touching; until, he was sure, he was much too close for either one's comfort, though she only looked at him expectantly.

_Why do dogs howl at the moon?_

"Maybe they're lonely," He breathed out throatily, a small, twisted wry smile gracing his lips. "Maybe when the moon is full, and looks so close, they just wish they could somehow reach out and touch it…"

"So maybe," Saki continued in her monotone - Shigure was positive it was a trick of the light when he saw a tiny, fleeting smile flash across her face as well – "they're just foolish."

Before he could even register the labyrinth meaning behind her words, intentional or not, Shigure found him staring at the retreating, swishing ends of Saki's black cloak with a single blink of uncharacteristically dulled senses. His own inbred darkness swirled nauseously within him, as he watched, unable to move, the real darkness – humming and alive – swallow her up.

* * *

Shigure awoke sometime the next afternoon, his neck stiff (He had fallen asleep with two hardback dictionaries as his pillow), and his stomach protesting with loud, angry rumbles.

Grinning, trying to tame his wild, long hair down to something presentable, Shigure ambled along down the stairs, not a single thought to bizarre occurrence last night, merely following the pleasant, indecipherable hum of voices from the kitchen, singing loudly, skipping a bit, singing some more, rounding the corner, and…

Screaming. Out. His. Fucking. Mind.

Quite shrilly, too.

"Damnit, will you shut up for once?" Kyo snapped grumpily, leaning against the sink, next to a very frazzled-looking Tohru, staring at him in a worried wonderment, her wet rubber gloves dripping a small puddle of water on the floor, obviously distracted from washing the dishes.

"Really, Shigure, that was quite uncalled for." Yuki said calmly from the table, his eyes never even straying from his food.

Shigure, however, was trying to coax his nerves back to a soothed state, smiling wearily down at the too familiar person who he had bumped into around the kitchen corner.

"Saki," Shigure said with the most suave politeness he could muster at the moment, so recently after his _mild_ spasm, as he deftly noted that his heart seemed to be doing somersaults in his stomach still, "what do we owe the pleasure of you joining us for breakfast?"

"Lunch." Yuki corrected.

Before Saki could so much as open her mouth, Tohru stumbled forward, blushing furiously, her eyes adorably eyes wide and apologetic, wielding a soapy frying pan like a weapon.

"Hana is just visiting - not to impose the company of my friends on your household, that is, if it's a bother – but she d-didn't have much company at her home, being the summer holidays, and wanted to visit for a while, but…"

"I wanted to check up on Tohru, make sure she was well, that her summer job and everything else wasn't causing her stress." Saki interjected quietly somewhere, between Tohru's aimless babbling and Shigure's mild squeals as he ducked wild blows from the sudsy frying pan, which swung around dangerously with Tohru's frantic, flailing arms.

Wiping a goop of soapy bubbles off of his cheek, Shigure felt the hairs on the back of his neck raise as if a heightened level of electricity was coursing through the room, and his eyes were instinctively drawn to Saki's, despite the fact that Tohru was still apologizing on like a lunatic, getting a couple whacks here and there that he suddenly failed to notice.

It was a bizarre sensation, but Shigure suddenly felt as though the room was thrown into a deafening silence, although his ears were buzzing irritably. He was hit with a sudden flood of understanding and grinned charmingly down at the gothic girl scrutinizing him fully, her hand rested protectively on Tohru's shoulder.

"…and I wouldn't want to impose inconvenience on the House of Sohma, after you've done so much for me, b—"

"Tohru, Tohru," He chided huskily, patting her head fondly. "Of course Saki can stay with us a while."

Shigure watched the gothic girl give a short, polite bow in gratitude, his boyish, lopsided grin widening when he couldn't help but notice the slight, suspicious narrowing of her eyes.

She seemed to be on to him.

_Catch me, if you can._

* * *

**A/N: **My first Furuba fic! Oh, heads up strictly anime viewers – Shigure is based off how he is in the manga, with an ulterior darkness. I know - Yum. 


	2. Bad Vibes

**Gothomance**

**Author: **Tofurkey

**Disclaimer: **Being as I am, always the one to please, I kidnapped the Furuba crew and tried to force my domineering tyranny of ownership upon them. Needless to say, Shigure enjoyed his daily bondage and Akito had to be sedated hourly. I released them after Kyo's fifteenth murder attempt, however. It just got far too _ludicrous_.

"_Great minds have purposes; others, wishes" _Washington Irving

* * *

**Chapter II: Bad Vibes**

_In the hazy white morning l__ight, two people, both clad heavily in black to the extent that they seemed their own dark entity in the feeble sunshine, slowly sauntered through the thick morning crowd hovering around the market, time seemingly irrelevant judging by the pace reminiscent of a funeral march._

_Strolling lazily beside her younger brother, Megumi, Saki twirled the handle of her black parasol in her lacey-gloved hand, a wild splatter of shadows dancing in a wide ring around the pair, dizzying swirls that threw the sunlight until an entirely different perspective._

_To an outsider, such a gesture would probably be placed as one out of mere boredom, but to a set of probing, persistent orbs, identical in likeness to Saki's own, it was a sign of raw nervousness, and heavy unease; set determination muddied with a dash of guilt. Not breaking out of fluid stride, Megumi gently twined his small hand in his sister's, his dark eyes adamantly burning onto a fixed point on her pale cheek._

_For an undefined period, they walked this way in silence, comfortably caught in a timeless void set in a vague world of inbred intuition and denpa waves, unfamiliar to the bustle of the gray society around them. Megumi swung Saki's overnight bag in his free hand back and forth to a silent rhythm; Saki's hand slipped from her brother's absentmindedly, her eyes set ahead._

_So distracted by that alien voice was she, that unexplainable hum in the back of her mind she was incapable of placating or quieting, that she didn't notice that Megumi had stopped walking long before, patiently waiting for her to notice his absence of company under a thick, overhanging branch a couple feet back._

_Finally noticing his absence, as if submerging from a thick swirl of dreams, Saki blinked and turned curiously on her heel. _

"_Megumi?" She called out uncertainly, dropping her arm so the parasol hung at her side as she stared at him, "Megumi, wha__t is it?"_

_Solemnly, Megumi stared at her, some of the wet white petals from the huge, overhanging lilac tree that shaded him raining down after a sudden gust of wind, tangling like soft, out-of-season snow in his mess of dark hair. "I should ask Saki the same question. I haven't seen Saki so dark and disoriented since before she met Tohru and Arisa. Why are you going to stay at Tohru's for summer break, Saki, instead of with mother, father, obaba, and me?"_

_Saki smiled softly, touched as she always was by his overwhelming concern for her, and thinking that for once wise little Megumi sounded the actual young age that he was; somber, yes, and unusually serious for a child, but all the same sullen and unsure. To be honest with herself, she hadn't had such a strange, strong magnetic pull to seek out Tohru and her Triad of Guardians, as she often silently referred to them, for a while – before she could even properly recall, even._

_The pull was abstract, yes, but not inexplicable. Cryptic, gloomy, and more evident than ever, the urgency of the deep, crepuscular waves that flowed with a fevered frenzy around the Sohma household alarmed Saki to her core. Tohru, her Tohru, possibly in danger._

_From her first separate introductions to each of the Sohma males, she had always acknowledged with a frail ease that they carried their own individual aura of concealed chaos, calamity beyond the normal human soul's weight. Gradually, Kyo and Yuki's knots began to become loose and more obscure under Tohru's tender tutelage, but Shigure's…_

…_Shigure still remained ever the jumbled puzzle, which troubled Saki, as his vibes seemed to be the most unsettled in their own arcane kingdom. He worried her, and made her worry for Tohru's safety in such an environment. The previous night she had awoken with a start, her room cold and indifferent except for the evasive beams of the glassy, incandescent moon, like hands grabbing at her, demanding her attention with an urgent kind of desperation. _

_So she woke, so she dressed, so she walked, and so she discovered, to both of their surprise, him as alone and restless as she was. And so she knew she had to watch him, because last night he had appeared to her crazed, obsessed, maybe, and she was ill at ease to leave Tohru under the guardianship of some so…so…_

…_So…so unquiet. Suspiciously unquiet, even._

_Standing in front of Megumi, Saki let one slim, warm hand fall in a gesture of comfort on his shoulder, her warm smile still illuminated on her face. With the other hand she gently brushed the soggy petals off his shoulders and smoothed them out of his ebony hair, all the while he fixed her with a determined, doleful stare._

"_How long will you be gone?" He inquired in a resigned, quiet way, his previous demands for explanation momentarily pushed to the side. Though the look he fixed her with the slight tilt of his head, his eyes locked and steady on her own, betrayed a continuous restless search for the answer of the entirely ultimate, phantom _why_, for grounded, cerebral Megumi normally had the answers, and Saki wished that one time the tables had turned, she had something to offer in return._

"_I don't know," she replied honestly, finally bringing the other hand to rest on his tense shoulders, "Perhaps the whole break." She watched him closely for an iota of negative reaction, but he seemed to have suspected this answer, and gave merely the slightest of nods in response. _

_Dolefully, he observed the ground, taking note of the patterns of the silvery petals strewn around them like milky tears, and when he spoke again, his voice was weary, his last half-hearted, determined try._

"_Why?"_

_Saki allowed her enigmatic smile to last long enough to soothe his ruffled demeanor for the moment, before raising her dark parasol once more, and stepping out of the shadows into the light of the early morning, Megumi following in-step. Between the balletic swish-swish of Saki's overnight bag swinging in Megumi's hand, casting an umbra of its own, Saki told him, in a simple, drawn whisper, the only reason she herself could explain in a fathom of an indecipherable many._

"_I have…a bad vibe."_

_She did not look at him then, only ahead at her unseen destination, though she felt, with his own form of unstable resolution, Megumi affectionately take her hand and once more entwine it with his own, smaller one. As they continued to loll towards the Sohma property in hushed amity, after a fair period of taciturnity, his words bubbled up in a sense of not final, but accepting departure, humming in time with the alive, alluring scent of lilac, viscid in the air, washing a calm over her._

"_Then I will pray."_

* * *

It was shrill and horrible and plain damn annoying, and he wanted it to stop right then and there. So, Shigure was unwillingly yanked out of a dreamy wraith that involved tangled limbs and tangled sheets, deep chasms, and moonbeams raining on white flowers. At six in the morning. It was unheard of, unthinkable, a crime against all good. Six in the morning to Shigure was like the middle of the night to a human with a normal slumber cycle. To show for his sleep-deprived wrath, Shigure rolled over on his beg, grabbed the perpetrator roughly by the neck, and squeezed for extra measure, before answering with his oh so very best manners.

"_What?_" He snapped into the phone groggily.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty. Are you well rested?" The sarcastic rumble of a deep, serious voice, an entirely alive and awake voice, that of Hatori Sohma, the only frequent caller of Shigure's, was way too much for the latter of the males to handle at such an early hour.

"Fuck you."

"Shigure," Hatori chided mildly in his resonant bass, meant to coax the rumpled man into conversation but only succeeding in reminding him how tired he truly was, like a lullaby.

"Mmm…not now, 'Tori, I'm sleeping. Call back later." And with a smart click of the phone hitting the receiver, Shigure rolled back over, closed his eyes defiantly, and began to ebb back into a lulled, leaden breathing, like the tide, a rich, patterned push and pull. He was sinking, sinking, sinking, like a heavy stone to the bottom of the cool, liquid ocean, and swimming towards him, inky and--

Shigure growled wolfishly into his pillow, suddenly tempted to tear it to shreds, and ripped the screaming phone off its cradle. The Traitorous Bastard.

"_Yes?_" He bit out, his lip curled, wishing he could reach through the phone line and wring Hatori's neck. He needed his eight hours, damnit!

"Shigure," the voice of disruption and doom warned from the opposite end.

"Not now," was the spry reply, followed by the second brisk hang-up of the morning. To make sure that it was the second and the last call he received in the wee hours of the morn, Shigure ripped the phone, wire and all, right out of the wall in one motion and threw it out the open window, relishing in the resounding crash as it smashed into tiny pieces on the oak porch, birds flying with squawks of terror out of nearby trees.

Like said, he was no morning person.

With a deep, contented sigh, Shigure sank back down into the deep folds of his bed, pulling the comforter over his head, like a white, cotton tent. Finally, sweet, sweet peace. As his eyelids began to sag, his mind turning sluggish, churning, he found himself in the cool ocean water again, the swirling black approaching him…was it a group of fish? Or was it…hair? Floating, dark tendrils of…

"Hey!" A sharp pain in his side. No, no, no…he was still swimming in the ocean; a shark maybe? Another swift, sharp pain in his side, a flash of white, a dose of reality, and like grains of sand falling through fingers, his room sifted into view, revealing a looming figure standing over his bed wielding a…cell phone?

"Don't…._ever…_make me take your calls again," Kyo hissed with menace, shoving the small electronic contraption in Shigure's face, making his eyes cross.

With a grimace, acutely aware of the wired anger coursing through a clearly pissed Kyo, who seemed to have taken the call in the middle of showering, for he was wearing only boxers, one sock, and a collared shirt, his wet hair plastered down, Shigure propped himself up on his elbows, tried to crush the tiny cell phone in his hand, let out a tiny squeal of pain indicative of his failure, and answered grudgingly, "'Tori?"

Kyo snorted with anger, and leaned over the bed to inspect the gaping hole in Shigure's wall, nearly reaching floor to ceiling, where the poor phone wires had once taken residency.

Hatori seemed to have planned on Shigure hanging up again, despite the idea of facing Kyo's wrath, and said in one exasperated rush what he had been trying to get at all along: "Shigure, I know about the girl."

That woke him up.

Shigure flipped around on his back and sat up in one jerk motion, throwing Kyo to the floor, who let out a furious howl, sending papers flying as he clawed for footing.

"Did Aaya tell you? It was just a one night thing. Okay, sure, I transformed in the middle, but she didn't see. I'm just some figment of a hangover, really nothing to worry about my dear Haa-san…" Shigure blabbered on mindlessly, using his foot to keep Kyo at bay, who was trying to lunge at him violently.

"Shut up, idiot," Hatori commanded wearily, and Shigure had the brief mental image of the tall, dark man posed austerely at his desk in the Main House, pinching the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

"I'm not talking about _that_ girl," Hatori put careful emphasis on that and Shigure smiled sheepishly to himself; so Aaya did tell him. "I'm talking about the friend of Honda's that has been staying with you for three days already."

Shigure frowned in discomfiture, letting the silence mold lengthily between himself and Hatori. For reasons that he couldn't explain, he had a feeling that he should be quite worried about the conversation ready to entail. It was just summer break, so he hadn't seen a need to inform Akito about the girl's stay. Had the head of house somehow gotten word?

Stomach clenched uncomfortably, Shigure stood up abruptly, causing Kyo to shriek with revulsion.

"Where are your clothes, you pervert?" Once more the birds in the trees right outside the window, only just recently deeming it safe to return, flocked out in a peeved squabble as the high-pitched yowl shook their branches unpleasantly.

Beating Kyo over the head unceremoniously with a pillow, though the traumatized teen needed no such urges to cause him to flee the room ("Oh, grow up Kyo-Kyo! Some of us sleep in the nude!"), Shigure slammed the door in his wake and sank down the wall, wishing desperately for a cigarette.

"So," he breathed out, drumming his fingers nervously on the wood floor, "who told you?"

"Satsuki. Who heard it from Kisa, who heard it from Hiro, who heard it from Sensei, who heard it from Kyo," Hatori listed off methodically, using the voice he normally reserved for patients. "Akito will not be pleased."

"So Akito doesn't know?" Shigure established, and Hatori 'mmm'ed in turn.

The knot that had been gathering somewhere in his abdomen loosened considerably, and the cool relief that washed over him was likened to the ocean dip in his dreams.

Given new momentum in the matter, Shigure crisply continued, "And Akito doesn't need to know. It's irrelevant, nothing like Tohru's case, as the girl is staying short-term. A week, at best," _I hope, _"and we'll be careful. The boys attend school with girls all the time and know how to handle them…well enough. Tohru, too, has never waivered in loyalty to her promise, even if Saki is one of her best friends."

"It's not the girl or The Boys or even Akito I'm worried about," Hatori drawled impatiently. "It's you."

"Oh?" Shigure allowed his amused perplexity to shine through. "And why is that, my dear Hatori?"

Hatori took his sweet time answering this query, and Shigure could pick up the distinct click of a lighter being snapped open, reminding him of the cigarette he was craving, before Hatori exhaled deeply and stated casually enough, "Well, for one thing, you're vile."

"I love it when you talk dirty to me so early in the morning." Shigure purred suggestively, his grin cheeky. "Please, oh please, don't stop."

"Secondly," Hatori continued effortlessly, granting Shigure's wish, "you're irresponsible."

"Touché"

"And devious."

"Fair enough."

"And dishonorable."

"Ouch."

"With dishonorable intentions."

"As always."

"And incredibly horny."

"Yes, you would know."

"And—" But before Hatori could continue on with his list, albeit a promised lengthy and detailed and polished work, as anything Hatori touched was deemed to be, Shigure cut him off with an intrusive cough.

Clearing his throat, and keeping his humor in check for the sake of saving some of his dignity, Shigure articulated with especial care, "Tori, I understand your concern. I, a preying older man, and she, a defenseless young woman under my charge most of the day, but you need to trust me on this Hatori, _not this girl_." For extra measure, he added truthfully, "She gives me the willies."

As a silence accumulated, however, and the only sounds between the two the hushed draws and deep exhales from Hatori's end, Shigure finally cracked. Rolling his eyes, he cried into the phone in exasperation, "Not _sexual_ willies! Christ!"

For all his ulterior, sly ways, nothing could be closer to the truth for Shigure. Ever since their midnight encounter her surprise announcement of deciding to take her vacation in his residence, Shigure had made sure to carefully manipulate his sleeping schedule and eating schedule so that he was alone on all accounts, and didn't have the slightest chance of even catching a glimpse of Saki Hanajima. Her very gaze unnerved him. Granted, he wasn't considered by most shallow conceptions to be a very composed man of a sound mind, but he assuredly was, and the notion that she appeared to have grasped the buried, murky aspect of his persona immediately aroused his suspicions and put him on utmost guard.

"I'm sorry," Hatori retracted mildly, "but I'm sure you understand my concern. I had…a bad vibe."

Again, Shigure rolled his eyes and retorted sarcastically. "Hatori, what I don't understand how you find the time."

Shigure didn't need to see his friend to know that he was smiling, that slight, recherché expression that always took one by surprise. There was a slight pause in the conversation, in which he heard another cigarette being lit.

"So," Hatori continued after a while in a much lighter tone, full of rich but carefully leveled wit, "did you really just converse this entire with me, completely naked? Or was I just imagining Kyo's utter horror before?"

There was a brief silence in which both males reflected back on Kyo's shrill cries of disgust, and was soon broken by Shigure's booming, barking laugh, full of free reigning hysteria, and joined by Hatori's quieter, melodic, and much rarer one, in a blissful synchronicity.

* * *

It was hours later, much closer to his normal rising time, that Shigure strolled down the stairs humming to himself in all good cheer, recently showered with his long ebony hair hanging in loose, wet tendrils, and donning his favorite black yukata. He had gone back to sleep not long after Hatori's call, and he guessing the hour had a little after noon.

Raking tenuous fingers through his soaking mane, Shigure yawned and shuffled leisurely into the kitchen, poured himself some tea, sat down, raised the morning paper, blinked, quirked an eyebrow, and then slowly, ever so slowly, lowered it again.

"Good morning, Saki," Shigure said calmly, raising his other eyebrow as he took in the whole affect that his tired eyes had impossibly glanced over moments earlier.

In the far left corner of the kitchen, Saki was curled up serenely on the floor, dressed for full effect in a pitch black lace dress, her long, glossy hair pulled back in a loose braid, even her nails painted to coincide grimly. Damn, did she always dress as if she was a guest to some exotic funeral?

"Afternoon," she corrected in a deadpan, not sparing him a glance, and tranquilly flipped the page in her book. "But yes, thank you, it's still good."

Shigure smiled winsomely, took a sip of his tea, raised his paper again, and suddenly taking notice of the silence that lingered in the room, lowered once more.

"Where's Yuki?"

"Student Council duties at school. He left an hour ago."

"Ah. Right. And Tohru?"

"Work. She'll be home by dinner."

"Ah. Kyo?"

"Doujo. He left early this morning, giving off interesting waves, too. He seemed flustered."

"Ah." Shigure choked a bit on his tea, and then grinned sheepishly to himself. Now, really, he wasn't that bad to look at.

"So," Shigure continued a little awkwardly, for even though Saki paid no heed to iron curtain thrown over the room, it irked him inexplicably, especially with his conversation with Hatori fresh in his mind, "That means…were…alone?"

"Very much so," Saki murmured with ease, her eyes still glued to her book. Though she showed no sign of being bothered, her tone carried a sort of quality that suggested she wished to be left to her solitude. Shigure's grin widened.

"What are you reading?" He asked in his most charming, innocent voice, and masked his features to be those of polite curiosity as he scooted his chair closer. She finally risked him a glance, dark eyes curtained by thick eyelashes, before they flickered back to the page. Shigure noticed, that under close scrutiny, the slightest furrowing of her eyebrows betrayed her suspicions, however stoic her façade.

"It's actually one of your books," she said, showing him the cover, which read _Western Romantics: an Anthology_. "I got it out of the bookcase in the sitting room."

Shigure plucked it deftly from her hands and ran his fingers over the hardcover in a loving manner, before carefully flipping open to the section she had been reading.

"Washington Irving, _The German Student_; an American Romanticist. Well, more like Gothic Romantic," Shigure recited automatically, surprising the girl curled up at his feet. He had studied English, Western and Eastern, just for mere humor in university for a while, and he was a writer; should it come as a surprise that he actually knew something?

"What elements make it gothic?" She asked curiously, and though Shigure was glad he piqued her interest finally, it took major will power to repress a snort. Of course she would be interested in the gothic aspect of anything.

"Well," Shigure began with a sly grin, sliding off his chair to join her on the floor, which she gave no reaction to whatsoever except to fold her hands primly in her lap and scoot away just a trifle, "inexplicable events that seem supernatural, an aura of mystery, overwrought emotion…"

He trailed off gradually, pausing to look at her, and when she made no comment but to stare defiantly right back into his eyes, he grinned at her wolfishly. Oh, the scheming wheels were turning. How disapproving Hatori would be, he was supposed to be careful around this girl, which was…well…not him at all. Basically, Hatori had asked him to resist all natural urges of his innate persona that happened to tug, and it wasn't really that difficult of request, but the plain fact was that He. Didn't. Want. To.

Clearly, the girl was suspicious of him and untrusting of leaving Tohru in his care, so the logical step would be to prove he was worthy, so to speak, and have her and meddlesome ways be gone.

But Shigure Sohma disliked the realm of logistics. For now, he wanted to play.

Um, mind games, that is.

After all, it was only fair; if her motives were allowed to be shadowy and ambiguous, reactions against his own ulterior rationale, than his should be rightfully allowed to thwart her. And have fun doing it. _Fun. Fun! _Hey, it was no crime.

"Sohma?" She was staring up at him expectantly, her head tipped quizzically to the side, and he smiled the way he always smiled, coy and lopsided, realizing he must have been staring off into space with that weird expression of concentration on his face with quite some time.

"Right, sorry," He regained some of his suaveness, scooting closer to her. "Gothic romance; or, Gothomance," He chortled at his own little joke, but upon meeting her blank look, coughed and quickly moved on, "unrequited love, powerful love, often hindered by rival suitors, uncertainty muddied by darkness between the lovers…" He scooted even closer to her, so close that, he was sure she could detect the faint trace of mint and chamomile in his breath every time he exhaled, and he, the strong fragrance of what smelled like lilacs saturated by a nightly rain. For the second time in three nights, he was too close for either of their comfort, and for the second time, he didn't move away.

"Often times," he went on in warm, dark tones, just barely touching her, though his words caressed and his fingers whispered near enough, "the virtuous heroine is oppressed by a tyrannical male figure, one who threatens her with illicit lust or love."

They were a breadth away now, entirely in the other's territory, his golden eyes wild with unchecked humor, his mouth formed in an alluring smirk, her face dispassionate, though her eyes were burning. Shigure's smirk widened uncontrollably when he reasoned she probably wanted to hit him, but instead she twisted the game in her own favor, momentarily unseating him.

"You smile often," She stated rather bluntly, her breath tickling his skin, fixing him with a puzzling look that he couldn't quite decipher.

"And you don't smile enough," He retaliated cheekily. It was all too easy, really.

"Quality over quantity," she retorted aloofly, though Shigure suddenly felt as if he was being too closely scrutinized under her gaze and scooted back a little, which allowed her to stand. Her words still dancing in his mind, a small part of him inside that would admit to her triumph replayed Hatori's rare laughter in his ears. An obscure part of him had to agree.

Standing up himself, the illusionary spell broken and the hazy, momentary closeness forgotten, in which Shigure was sure his overactive, writer's imagination reproduced the delusion of his enrapture with her and a slight hitch in her breathing in his mind's eye, he glanced across the room where Saki had halted at the door, playing with her raven braid.

He broke the silence. "Did you find our discussion…?"

"Enlightening?"

"Yes. And of Gothic Romance?"

"I find it overrated, and least post-period. Far too tragic and twisted to even be bothered with." She stated coolly, twirling a few errant raven strands around her finger.

"And Gothomance?" He inquired with a wry smile, leaning casually against the wall, his arms folded and his dark hair falling in his face.

"I find that it's not even a real term," and there it was, fleeting, rare, and enigmatic; the smile of Saki Hanajima, with a quality of which she so casually spoke, alighting on her face like a phantom and disappearing before he could even fathom it.

**

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**A/N: **Um, yes I am weird, and yes, I'm back, and ready to apologize for the hiatus. I'm glad to say that things have finally settled down and I can devote much deserved time to this delightful pie-slice of mine. Well, delightful to me, at least. The only thing I find undelightful is the spacing, which only occures when I upload it on this site, and is something I have tried to change numerous times. I blame Akito. Why? Well, he _is _God.

Anyway, I'm curious my dear readers: who do you think is winning, thus far, this bizarrely obscure battle of wills? Saki always seems to get the last word, but does Shigure think so? I'm just desperate for your opinions, so if it tickles your fancies, please _do_ review. I enjoy hearing your comments, corrections, complaints, and considerations. Also, feel free to e-mail me. It makes my day, you see.

I hope you enjoyed, and stick with me for the future. Love takes time, people.

Ja and Java Love,

Tofurkey

**Next Chapter**: 'Fraternizing with the Enemy…Isn't So Bad'


	3. Fraternizing With the Enemy

**Title: **Gothomance

**Author: **Tofurkey

**Disclaimer: **So what, I admit it: I attempted to steal Fruits Basket from Natsuki Takaya. As for my other numerous crimes…um, I plea the 5th.

**A/N: **I cannot believe how long it has been since I updated – early November! If I had to explain, I'd say it was a mixture of an awful thing that is the junior year of high school, my own laziness, a fall-out period with my muse, and a losing of interest in Fruits Basket. However, all of these were cured by the nearing of summer and my purchase of the 12th and 13th Furuba volumes. Anyhoo, I'd like to thank everyone for their constructive and kind reviews (they really helped pull me out of the abyss), and for their longtime patience with this story; please continue, I'm so grateful for it, especially after such a long hiatus.

Anyway, here we have it at last, folks! Sorry it's kind of short, but I just wanted to get something out there to let y'all know that I was still alive. The story will pick up again soon, I promise. Until then, enjoy!

"_All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must seem inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."_ –Sun Tzu

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**Chapter III: Fraternizing With the Enemy…Isn't So Bad?**

Appearing ghostly white against the dark pane of glass, the frail, finely-boned hand held the thick curtains back, poised tensely on the brink of uncertainty of whether or not to let go and close out the glow of the moon. The specter-like figure had been staring out the window for an unaccountable amount of time, light-strained eyes following the scene below with an inexplicable absorption.

_Interesting…_

Though the dusky landscape below revealed little as to the shapes and forms inhabiting it, a figure that was darker than the settling grey-blue stood still in the garden absent-mindedly, her black cape-like garment rippling in the light wind. She had been there a while, staring from the house, to the flowers, to her purse, to the main road, and back to house again, looking out of place and out of character.

Never had Hanajima appeared so outwardly indecisive, visibly fidgeting even from such a distance. After a few more drawn out minutes, in which the elegant figure leaning lightly against the window pane tugged the thick curtains slowly across the window until only a slit of view was left, Saki suddenly turned on her heel and was just as suddenly one with the darkness as she headed towards the main road.

_Where is she off to so late…?_

The heavy curtains were wrenched back again, the figure searching for black-clad girl in the pitch dusk, curiosity piqued along with the feeling of obligated concern.

_It's like trying to find a needle in a needlestack…or something like that...and she disappeared so quickly._

Mulling it over, the concealed spectator would have missed the sudden appearance of Shigure if he hadn't sauntered directly into the path of the moonbeam, the distorted shadows he cast by doing so flickering in the night and drawing attention in the otherwise still serenity of the evening.

_This just gets weirder and weirder…_

Watching with growing puzzlement and suspicion as Shigure took off in the same direction as Saki, deep in a reverie and comfortable in the blanketing silence covering the entire Sohma house, the three light knocks on the door were enough to make the phantom figure flinch and rip the curtains across the window with a jerky force, throwing the room in complete darkness.

"I'm coming."

_Slowly, slowly, slowly_, he commanded to his pounding heart. The padding of his feet barely making a whisper as he crossed the wooden floor of his room, all the more ghostlike; the loud creak the door made when he finally opened it seemed obscene in the heavy quiet.

A pajama-clad Tohru bowed politely and offered up a spiral-notebook. "Thank you for letting me borrow your notes Yuki-kun, it was very kind of you and very helpful for the summer assignments. I'm so sorry to bother you for it in the first place, but I find physics especially hard, and your notes describe everything so well with such detail."

"It was nothing. I'm glad to help you, Honda-san," he returned politely, gently taking his notebook back from her.

"Yes, thank you!" Tohru exclaimed, blushing cheerfully. Her smile started to slip off, however, when she got a good look at Yuki. He looked frail and ghastly, with purple-blue bags under his eyes marring his pretty face. The thing that worried Tohru the most, however, was the pinched expression that dominated his features, broken only by a cloudy look in his eyes.

"Yuki-kun, are you okay? Are you sick?" Tohru asked urgently, biting her lip and looking up into his wan face with evident worry, noting in the back of her mind that his room was completely dark, yet he was still fully-dressed and appeared painfully tense and alert.

Gently tugging on a stray strand of Tohru's hair, Yuki grudged up a veiled smile. "No, I'm fine… I'm just speculating about recent occurrences."

"Oh! Well, I'm sorry for interrupting you, Yuki-kun! Please don't think too hard," Tohru said with one last polite bow, before she scampered off down the hall to her own room.

Somehow, Yuki couldn't bring himself to hold that promise.

* * *

Saki pulled her cloak tighter around her frame, the summer night's sudden chill taking her by surprise, as she walked towards the main road at a leisurely pace. She was still uncertain as to whether or not she should have told any of the Sohma males of her hasty and impromptu departure from their household, but it was fairly late into the night and she didn't want to worry anyone further than she had already in reference to her atypical manner.

Only Tohru easily understood and readily accepted such queer nuances of her personality; the boys, on the other hand, would only be further perturbed by another weird habit of hers. It would only be a meaningless complication.

Her mind momentarily lost in her mission, Saki flinched when she realized she wasn't alone and hadn't been for some time, slowing her steady pace to a halt to acknowledge this fact. The soft footsteps that she cursed herself for not hearing sooner, however, did not stop until their owner was hovering directly behind her.

"Now, now, Saki…don't you think you're being improper? Sneaking off in the middle of the night without an escort…my, my! Thank Buddha I witnessed your sneaky little getaway, or you could have been vandalized or much worse underneath the cover of darkness! We must stop making these midnight meetings a habit!" Shigure boomed with cheerful sadism, his voice resonating in the still night, upsetting small, diurnal animals from their peaceful slumbers.

To add even more to the mere outrage of his presence, Shigure swiftly came up behind Saki and linked her elbow with his own, leading her with a sort of violent joviality toward the main road, his blissful babble drowning out every one of her seething protests and his daffy grin evading the scorching intensity of her infuriated glare.

"Now that I've so dutifully rescued you, are you going to inform me where you were off to? Some scandalous secret rendezvous? A lusty, romantic affair in which your amorous desires couldn't be satisfied before the break of…"

"Well, yes. In a way," Saki cut him off in a blunt monotone as they both stepped onto the main road towards town, Shigure's steps making no sound whatsoever in contrast to the loud clunking of Saki's chunky high-heel boots.

Now it was Shigure's turn to be taken aback, as he had, of course, only been teasing the girl. Unconsciously, he tightened his grip on her elbow, his narrowed eyes focusing on the vibrant twinkle of the urban lights nearby, pushing through the dense canopy of trees that surrounded the Sohma Property.

The thought of Saki having some sort of …_lover_ was beyond the realms of his imagination. As far as he could tell, the only people she devoted her time to were Tohru and the Yankee, and those relationships, though deep, were certainly purely platonic. Even the thought of Saki Hanajima being part of some large, voodoo, strange, gothic-like family was too much to image.

Oh, he could just picture it: whips, leather, knives, psychic waves, and ritualistic animal sacrifices. In other words, The Hanajima Clan.

An especially painful tug on his arm jerked Shigure back to earth, and he realized that he had been silent for quite some time. Grinning charmingly down into Saki's dark eyes, which glinted back at him with a savage sort of anger, he gently patted her arm that was linked with his unwillingly. Apparently, she had given up any sort of hope of breaking his vice grip.

"You smell nice," he commented at random, and with surprising truth. The gist he attributed to a sort of calm; all soothing, pale chamomile and husky lilacs. Yet again, the girl was full of surprises, whether subtle or substantial. He had half-heartedly expected her to smell of Essence of Innocents, Fleshy Slain in The Secret Underground Gothic Lair.

Saki stiffened at his side in response to his borderline-lecherous comment, but offered no verbal reply.

A man who knows no boundaries, Shigure continued to merrily and mercilessly prod. "So, where are we off to? This secret lover of yours, it wouldn't happen to be Kyo, would it? Because, I happened by his room a couple minutes before I dashed out to escort you, and I don't believe he was in…"

"I never said I had a secret lover," Saki finally replied, the tiniest of red flushes gracing her pale cheeks. Not that it was visible, thankfully, in the pitch night.

"I said I had…desires."

"For your secret lover?"

"No."

"For your secret lover!"

"No."

"For some secret love…ing?"

"No, no, no!" Her voice, for the first time that he could recollect, rose above a monotonous decibel, and his cheeky grin that he was sure she could feel, not see, reflected his wicked humor at such an accomplishment.

"I'm off to the Daisuke Convenience Store to pick up some melon pocky. Melon. Pocky. Not a lusty rendezvous, not Kyo – melon pocky. When I can't fall asleep at night, I get cravings for melon pocky, and your house was not endowed with any. So here I am, and while 'Secret Lover' isn't exactly what I'd term it, yes, I am pretty desperate for some. "

It was just too much – the rapid, frazzled, low voice in which she said it, the ludicrousness of it all; Shigure collapsed completely into a fit of wild, unrestrained, hysteria-bent laughter. The few passerbies stalking the streets late at night turned to stare as he succumbed fully to the effects, gasping and wheezing as he leaned against the brick wall of a laundry mat for support. Blank-faced, Saki looked on silently.

It could have been the neon sign overhead advertising an electronics store, all glitz and glamour, bright blues and acid greens dancing in the dense night, but he could have sworn amidst his own teary-eyed laughter, Saki's own gaze bent on something resembling levity. A pretty, tiny, enigmatic smile of someone with a secret, or some other arcane knowledge. It could have been the elation at hearing something so utterly ridiculous and unexpected, as well, that could have allowed him to truly enjoy himself in the presence of such.

Quite the puzzle.

* * *

A few minutes and a few blocks later, after Shigure had completely composed himself except for the occasional snort, Saki, still linked firmly to him by the elbow, dragged him through the automatic doors of the 24-hour mini-mart. A squat, toad-like old man, the only other person in the store, eyed them suspiciously from behind the register.

As if sensing denpai waves from the plastic wrappings, Saki immediately made for the back left corner aisle, where all the sweets and snacks were stacked. With a sort of rabid intensity that got Shigure giggling again, she finally wrenched herself from his grasp with a seemingly effortless jerk and began pilfering through the numerous pocky flavors for her 'Secret Lover'.

"Melon pocky, melon pocky. I still cannot believe it; here I was, following you in the night, thinking you were up to something strange and sultry with Kyo, and you were just sneaking off to buy a snack." Shigure grinned, running a hand through his hair as if to further express his disbelief.

Triumphant at last, Saki turned to him with hands full of pocky, her expression serious, "But you didn't really think that I would be meeting Kyo, did you? You have to know that he's blindly in love with Tohru. He may not know, but you must."

A small, enigmatic smile graced Shigure's features as they walked towards the check-out together. Yes, the girl was genuinely perceptive, and he had to wonder if the talent even had anything to do with her bizarre waves. No, most likely not; which made the game even more thrilling, even if victory was less certain. Well, he had done a fairly good job tonight in keeping up some façade of innocence, and Hanajima's appeared to be less guarded than usual.

Maybe he was just imagining this whole thing, really. It wouldn't have been the first time that his overactive mind ran circles around him, the effect dizzying. After all, it all was becoming far too easy if he had convinced her already.

_Ho hum_

Shigure finally answered, pausing mid-walk to look momentarily at some interesting soft drinks, only to be jabbed back into stride with a long black nail. "Of course I knew, I merely kid! For a lonely, bored old man like me, watching the heated love triangle unfold between Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo, is often the only excitement I get in my day."

Saki looked up at him silently from under a veil of thick eyelashes, before she dumped all twenty packages of melon pocky before the rotund toad-like cashier, who clicked his tongue in disapproval of them. Shigure grinned; they probably looked like a pair of criminals to the old man, both decked out completely in starkly black clothing, the garish yellow-white lighting creating unflattering shadows.

"How will you be paying for this?" The old man croaked suspiciously.

Saki reached in her purse and pulled out 2,000 yen, but Shigure beat her to it, handing the man his own money first. Now two people glared at him suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" Saki demanded in a low whisper, the squat cashier leaning in inconspicuously to hear the answer as well.

Shigure grinned cheekily, placing his arm around Saki's shoulder so their audience wouldn't miss a beat. Indeed, the scandalized cashier looked like his face might implode at so much at the very idea, his cheeks turning a curious shade of blue as he used all his will to keep his mouth shut.

"Why, paying for you, of course!" Shigure exclaimed joyfully, nuzzling the side of her head with his nose, which caused both Saki to freeze and the cashier's eyeballs to pop. "After all," he purred suggestively, "we are married, and it's only proper that a husband pays for his new wife."

Saki, finally noticing the purplish tones of the old man's face as he speedily checked through melon pocky package number eleven, twelve, and thirteen, dutifully slipped her arm through Shigure's once more, her face blank and serious.

"Yes, that's right. We just got married a week ago, as both my parents passed away and forced me to find a source of income," Saki began in a despairing monotone, "As it was, my father's second cousin here offered me his hand, but my grandmother refused, wanting nothing but my unhappiness. So we had to wed in secret, the dead of the night. Now, my new husband and I are running from the law and my grandmother's vengeful hand, as he basically kidnapped me considering our age difference. So here we are. Cold. Convicted. Hungry. This pocky is all we can afford, and our first meal in five days, and--"

"I think you've said enough, honey!" Shigure laughed nervously, as the squat, toad-like cashier looked like he was on the verge of having a massive coronary, his eyes bulging at the unbearable reprobation. Saki nodded with dramatic solemnity, before taking the plastic bag and whisking it out the door, her cape swishing behind her with flair.

"Um, keep the change," Shigure politely waved away the pudgy, purplish hand full of money, visibly shaking with affront, as he dashed out towards the automatic doors after Saki, before her black frame became lost in the night.

* * *

Shigure balanced his mechanical pencil on his nose, deep in thought. By now it had to be well past three-thirty in the morning, but he was far from tired. Swiveling around in his desk chair, Shigure turned on a solitary lamp, blinking back stars as his eyes adjusted to light after hours of sitting in the dark, musing, pulling through his thoughts like a rake through the rocks of a zen garden, thoroughly and quietly.

The walk back from Daisuke had more quiet than the strained one to it, mainly because within the brief ten minutes to reach the Sohma House, Saki had been occupied consuming ten packages of her precious melon pocky.

He wasn't quite sure what the errand had brought forth, but he found, looking back, that he actually enjoyed the girl's company. The conversations they had shared on the way home, small talk and gambling predictions about who would eventually be the one who would win Tohru's affection, had been light and enjoyable, the unusual circumstances and late hour allowing for an air of relaxation between them. The level of perception and the depth of speculation that she had contributed reminded him of the conversations that he often shared with Hatori, minus the cigarette chain-smoking, something he was missing sorely at the moment.

Suddenly, with too quick of a miscalculated spin on his desk chair, the pencil Shigure had been balancing went flying off his nose and ricocheted off the wall loudly. Momentarily frozen in his seat, Shigure raised his eyes to look at the blank ceiling, tilting his head to listen for anyone stirring at the minor disturbance upstairs. Above him was Tohru's room, the room she shared with Saki…

Shigure sat that way for a long time, tense and upright, before he slowly slumped back in his chair, pullinghis longfingers roughly throughhis dark hair. Damn, he was in trouble, he just knew it. It was reaching levels he'd rather not cope with, rather not admit to. The quasi-war was getting too dangerous..it was beginning to cut to close. Especially if he, to some degree, lost. It would more than his honor, it would be his plans, what he had been reaching for all along.

Especially if he thought...that fraternizing with the enemy...wasn't so bad.

Ah fuck, he hated when Hatori was right.

* * *

**A/N: **Yay, there you have it – an update! On a side note, some of you have commented on my occasional grammatical/spelling errors, something I acknowledge readily and have been aware of for quite some time. Truth be told, I always punch out chapters in relatively brief periods, in which a rapid twice-over is normally the only amount of self-check I apply. If anyone knows of a beta or would like to beta this story, could you contact me? I'll send you presents. And by presents, I mean I'll emote sugary thoughts in your general direction.

**Next Chapter**: In which Shigure goes to visit Akito, Saki does some snooping, and Yuki comes to some conclusions.


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